Upset Boulevard
by PolkaDotMilly
Summary: Danisnotonfire x OC. Cora needs a break and a fortnight in London sounds perfect, but when a figure from her past reappears, will everything go as smoothly as she'd planned?


**You walked back into my life**

Cora stood deadly still in the elevator. She hated using them and this was the first time she'd stepped in one in over six months. She would have taken the stairs, but her suitcase was too heavy to carry down all seven flights. She had crammed everything she needed for the fortnight long break into a small, pale blue suitcase and consequently it weighed a ton. Cora was not one to travel light.

The elevator chimed and Cora shot out, suitcase in tow. Stepping out onto the crisp, frostbitten pavement of her hometown in Northern England, she stretched slightly and took in a gulp of cold air. Auburn leaves crunched underfoot, coated in a thin layer of sugar-like frost, tumbling from trees as graceful as any prima-ballerina. As she bobbed along the street, her suitcase rattling behind her, she felt alive and extremely excited at the prospect of spending a whole fourteen days away from here, from the graffitied stairwells and rat infested cellar, to a place where no-one knew who she was, where she wasn't judged and she might even find a little romance.

She let out a nervous laugh and she traveled along the street. Who was she kidding? She hadn't had a boyfriend since she left high school when she was eighteen and became a freelance artist. She rarely went out and like a true internet addict had no social life whatsoever. She had no friends and her family were so estranged she barely even knew them anymore. The only people she knew were the three stuck up girls who liked to tease her down the corridor, the ones who were the source of Cora's deep-set hatred for herself. She shivered at the thought of things they said to her, before taking a deep breath and pushing the thoughts to the back of her head. London would be a welcome break and hopefully would help her to clear her head.

Nearly missing her train, Cora managed to find her seat with only a minute or so to spare. The train to London Euston would only take three hours despite the huge number of stops along the way. As long as there were no delays, nothing could go wrong, Cora anxiously thought to herself, before tucking her suitcase under the seat and settling down to a lovely two-hour nap accompanied by a new pair of headphones and a well chosen playlist. When she awoke, she found an overweight, snoring middle aged man with next to no hair sat directly in front of her, his sweat making an awful stench which meant she had to get away, and fast. Wheeling her suitcase behind her, she fount a spot next to the doors with a low window. There was only twenty minutes left of the journey and as she sat cross-legged on top of her suitcase, she began to take notice of not only the buildings rushing by, but of the people in the carriage to her left and the rapidly approaching brunette boy with a look of frustration plastered on his features.

Pressing the button on the glass door, the boy walked into the space and gestured a polite sorry to Cora. His brow furrowed and Cora noticed he had deep chestnut eyes that matched his straight, if a little windswept, hair. She blushed slightly as he caught her eye, before returning to his phone call.

"Yes I am listening. I'm on the train back, I'll be ten minutes or so. Phil, I don't need picking up. Yes, I know it's raining, I'll just get wet. What about my hair? Listen Phil, if I'm not home in half an hour, ring me, ok? Good. Bye"

He hung up and sighed, continuing to text people and become absorbed in his tasks. Cora, however, was not interested in what he was doing, she was interested about him. She knew him from somewhere, those deep chestnut eyes brought back painful memories, she just could not place where from. As they rolled into the station, she shrugged and told herself to forget about it, but with every second is was becoming increasingly difficult. She slid off her suitcase and smooth out her tee, wheeling her bag to the door. The stranger began to walk back to the carriage, answering a phonecall just before he reached the glass door.

"Hello, Dan Howell speaking"

Then everything clicked into place. Cora instantly knew, the fights, the arguments, the late nights, the hugs, the huge consumption of red wine. The brunette boy heading to the next carriage was Dan Howell, the Dan Howell she went to school with, the only friend she had and the one who abandoned her in her hour of need.

"Dan?" she whispered her voice barely audible against the ruckus of the train. He heard though, spinning around as the glass door slid shut behind him. His face melting into sadness as he realised who she was, guilt almost dripping over his features. He couldn't say anything, she wouldn't hear him through the glass. He looked at her with such longing, with so many questions and answers to supply. Suddenly the train jolted and the doors swung open. With one last, longing look she wheeled her bag off the train and lost herself in the crowds of london.

Dan grabbed his bag from the overhead rack and ran off the train, almost knocking several people over in his blind panic. He ran through the crows screaming her name as if she were a lost child. But it was too late, Cora was in a cab, tears streaming down her face as she caught one last glimps of him before the cab driver pulled away.

*author note* Hey there lovely reader! As you may or may not have guessed, I. do not own Phil or Dan in this story, only Cora who is my Oc. This story intends to be 11 chapters long at roughly 1,000 words a chapter, and written as a songfiction to Upset Boulevard by Spector. Hope you enjoy. Please Review and Follow if you feel like it!


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